My 5/27 TOEIC test result arrived around noon.
I lost 65 points on this test from the previous score.
But my score loss is not the most serious problem, the real problem is...
I forgot that I should submit my test scores to Ibaraki International Association!!
---And my latest score is too low to submit...
TOEIC score is valid for two years from the test month.
My previous score is thru this November.
I already have the pre-first grade on STEP test, but if Ibaraki International Association requires the certified speakers to BOTH over 730 on TOEIC test AND the pre-first grade or higher on STEP test, I must concentrate on boosting my TOEIC score and get a higher one until November.
No pastime is needed to me, if I really want to get my score higher.
I'll get...THAT software...the one I once gave up buying, but...it seems the most handy and effective to me.
CNN English Express購読とiPodのどちらを選ぶかで悩んだあの時と同じ迷いが、また生じ始めてきました。
ラジオをカセットに録音することがなくなってきて、どうしても物理的にラジオ講座本放送を聞けない時対策が、非常に不安なのです。
「どうせ録音するからいいや」とだれてしまうのが嫌で、今までがんばって導入しないできたのだけど、中国語講座を聞けないことが増えたのが不安なのと、基礎1をもっと子ども達に(聞き流しでもいいから)聞かせたいのがあいまって、準拠CDとトークマスターとの二択が、私の中で始まっています。
My mother and I have had a workout at the women only sports club opened in Mito recently.
Today was our third visit of the facility.
I was so amazed to see my 66-year-old mother perfectly caught up to the program for the 30s.
And she did not have any muscle pain anywhere!!
I'm wondering why she had done no sports so far, since she's of such a good shape.
She could have met so many good friends and won some titles in her middle ages if she had done some sports then.
It seems to me that she is poor in finding a new friend; she is very lively in front of family members or her old friends, but she tends to stay at home around strangers, and does take care of her family almost enthusiastically instead, as if to reflect her dream or ideal lifestyle on her younger family members and relatives.
My elder daughter once said, "Her delicate care pressures me a lot. I do know I should be good and obedient to her, please her, but sorry to say, I feel more pressure than her love of me in her recent attitude toward me. I don't study hard ON PURPOSE to get out of this pressure."
She hadn't opened the door to an outside hobby, but now she did, so I'll have to take her outside more and more often, that will become my task, my MISSION from now on...which must be more and more important than learning English,,,
The picture above is the biggest Kuchipatch doll in my house.
It's my younger daughter's favorite doll, which she usually sleeps with.
It's MY favorite too, though I don't sleep with it...
☆the newest Kuchipatch in my house☆
(image available only on PC)
☆the oldest Kuchipatch☆
(image available only on PC)
It's over two years old, which is no more in store!!
☆the smallest Kuchipatch☆
It came with a box of mechanical pencil spare leads.
I'm so relaxed to see its plump yellow green body and pointed lips!!
These days, I've come to think I may be an old-school person.
I love IT and electronic games, but in my subconscious I've found something very old-fashioned or traditional.
The main reason is...
I dislike listening to music and audio programs with headphones!!
And I can't stand wearing headphones for a long time either.
So I bought an iPod speakers the day before yesterday, which I thought not necessary at the time I bought my iPod.
As soon as I got home, I connected my iPod with it and played some podcast programs in English.
This audio gadget doesn't have any equalizers, but I thought its performance was good enough.
I'm making the most use of it, through listening to English podcasts as many clips as possible in my housework time!!
I've complained many times about my elder daugher's attitude toward studying on this blog, but last evening I found something which will make her motivated in the near future.
She confessed that she didn't have any dreams in her high school life, or hasn't find a high school she dreams to enter three years later.
Hearing her words, it's funny that I didn't get irritated any longer.
It's quite natural for those who haven't find a dream or set a goal not to study hard.
She thinks she HAD BETTER go to high shcool, and even said she wanted to go to MY HUSBAND'S high school (workplace), but soon found it no realistic, since he transfers sometimes.
And the next moment...she said vaguely,
"I want to go to a high school as far as I can go by bike."
I decided I would not threaten her not to afford her high school tuition anymore, and realized that I should rather take her to high schools in my neighborhood, which are as far as she can go by bicycle.
I should take a chance on her progress, no matter how much it costs, that's what parents are for.
As for motivation toward studying, my mother also said dreams about high school or yearnings to a particular high school become big and important motivations to children.
She herself had yearned to enter the top girls' high school in her birthplace since her childhood, and actually entered it.
My son is yearning to enter the high school my father graduated from, which is concerned the very top high school in Ibaraki, and studies hard every day for his dream.
He once told me and my mother that he wanted to go to the same junior high school and high school as my father.
But the public junior high school where my father studied has hard and tough club activities, most clubs have only one day off a week and practices are held in early mornings and late afternoons.
So I'm wondering when and how he will get his study time constantly if he enters the public junior high school, at which my father and aunts studied and my elder daughter studies now.
以前、TOEIC Test DSトレーニングを買おうか買うまいか迷っていたけど、同じ値段なら、中学英単語ターゲットにするかもしれない、いや、きっとする。
理由は・・・利用者の数・・・
TOEICドリルは恐らく私しか使わないだろうけど、中学英単語なら子どもたちも使えるし・・・・・・やっぱりセコイ、チマイ路線か(^_^ *)( *^_^)(^_^ *)( *^_^)アレ
☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Yesterday evening, my elder daughter and I found a Nintendo DS software named "Junior-high Eitango Target 1800" at a secondhand bookstore in our neighborhood.
We got interested in it very much, and I remember reading a newspaper article about a junior high school in Kyoto which adopted this Nintendo DS software to the ninth graders.
It said that the students enjoyed learning vocabulary with the digital exercise book, and felt the dectation section very effective.
Their English vocabulary grew up actually, some students succeeded in learning as many words as enough to pass the 3rd grade STEP test.
I'm really surprised how drastically learning gadgets have changed in a couple of years.
They evolve smaller and handier, and some of them are getting cheaper, as cheap as children can afford them from their savings.
I'm not sure whether English vocabulary building softwares work for my children, I'll try one myself beforehand...
Last evening, my elder daughter didn't study at all.
I told her to do her homework little by little, but she insisted she would do it early in the next day morning and asked me to wake her up at 2 a.m.
I tried my very best to get up at two, but I overslept a little and got up about three.
And now...I'm watching her when she gets up.
I know I don't have to do it, and I shouldn't force her to study too early in the morning, but I feel like I'm obliged to raise all of my children motivated---in other words, I must do my very best in motivating them, and chose that I would get very much involved in studying many things without complaint.
I've found a magic word, which encourages myself quickly:
"It's MY choice."
When I get upset and my heart becomes full of disgust or complaints, I mumble the words above to calm myself down.
I sometimes say it to my children(mainly to my daughters) like "It's YOUR choice", when I hear them complain about their overdue homework.
I'm sleepy today..., always sleepy..., since I usually get up before dawn like 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. or even 1:30 sometimes but I mustn't take a nap but do my housework... but I shouldn't complain about it, I just do my best in everything around me, because
it's all my choice.
I was a little shocked at first when my daughters started playing "Keitai Tamagotch" again this week.
It's so out-of-date that I was planning to recycle this 2004 model games.
They had stopped playing them until last week...
"I have played several kinds of Tamagotch games so far, and found keitai Tamagotch the most exciting," said my elder daughter.
"I love keitai Tamagoch because I can see some cute, funny ancient Tamagoches," said my younger daughter.
I've had to take care of their Tamagotches during their school time, that is a little silly to me.
But I decided to take care of them, they are "alive" even if they are not real creatures.